


Avatar

by ultharkitty



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-28 07:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultharkitty/pseuds/ultharkitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whirl misses his hands. Luckily, he has an avatar.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Notes:</b> Written to <a href="http://ultharkitty.dreamwidth.org/40970.html?thread=341002#cmt341002">this prompt</a>.</p>
<p>Doesn't contain spoilers for recent issues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Avatar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NamiGideon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamiGideon/gifts).



Atomizer came home to the usual mess. It had spilled over into his side of the hab; empty energon goodie boxes, treat wrappers, oil cans, old rags coated in paint and wax, broken brushes. And one large blue tangle of helicopter out cold in the corner.

Atomizer kicked his way through, unsubtly nudging the heap back into Whirl's side of the room. He was one step from his blessedly clear recharge slab when a screaming ball of excitement and blue dungarees launched itself from the ceiling to cling to his back. 

"Gah!" Atomizer flailed, hip clanging on the slab. His vision blacked in the centre, silhouettes of tiny hands. 

"Guess who!" a high voice yelled directly into his audio.

Atomizer clung to the slab. "Whirl, get off me. I mean it, I just got my fins polished."

"Ooooh," Whirl's avatar clung to his neck with her knees and began prodding Atomizer's helm. Atomizer sighed, the shock finally subsiding, and sat on his slab. 

"Whirl. Get off. Now."

"Is Brainstorm coming?" Whirl enquired at a volume totally unsuitable for the setting. "You told him we were going drinking, right? All of us. Tonight. At Swerve's."

"Yes." Atomizer had indeed told Brainstorm that drinks were happening in the only drinking establishment this side of scrap-knew-where. He tried to get a grip on the avatar, but Whirl was nothing if not aggravatingly tenacious. "Brainstorm said he might let you touch the briefcase."

"He what?!" Whirl let go and leapt down onto Atomizer's slab. "He really said that? Really?" The holoform's little fingers waggled, and the human face radiated hope. There were paintbrushes stuck in the dungaree pocket. 

_No_ , thought Atomizer. "Sure. Hey, have you been painting again?"

"No," Whirl snapped, lips pursed. "Yeah, maybe. Wanna see?"

Whirl's avatar leapt down from the slab and rummaged around on the floor. A beige arm vanished into a pile of rags and tugged out a sketch book almost as large as the avatar itself. Tiny fingers stroked the cover and flicked over the dog-eared page corners. 

"You paying attention?" Whirl demanded. It was weird how normal it was to hear Whirl's words from such an alien voice. This was what, the sixth time Atomizer had come back to Whirl using his avatar since that incident with Ultra Magnus and the drinking. He nodded, trying to look encouraging. The happier Whirl was, the more likely it was the mess might get cleaned up. Eventually.

"Be impressed," Whirl instructed, flicking to page one. "Be _very_ impressed!"

Atomizer nodded along, cycling through the platitudes. "That's good. Yeah, I can almost smell the smoke. Is that a leg? Nice perspective on those bullets. Hey, another explosion!"

"They're gonna be stills," Whirl says. "In my biopic, remember? Rewind's been filming for me, it's gonna be awesome." The avatar struck a pose, holding up what Atomizer hoped was the final picture. It was Brainstorm handing Whirl a very big gun. A very very big gun. "Gonna call this one Geniuses," Whirl announced. "Genii? Whatever. These are gonna show my softer side."

"Softer side?" Atomizer tried not to look like Whirl had just announced he wanted to be repainted to match Cyclonus. 

"Yeah!" The avatar fell to the floor, sitting cross-legged on the mess. "Rescuing the weak, protecting the useless. Hero stuff." 

Atomizer lay down on his nice clean slab. To one side was his tasteful decor and harmonizing colours, to the other Whirl's chaos. "You know what else heroes do?" he said. 

Whirl gave him a look several magnitudes more expressive than his whole helicopter frame. It wasn't a pleasant look. 

"Heroes pick up after themselves."

Whirl gave him the finger.

* * *

With Atomizer finally in recharge, Whirl skipped back over his stuff and settled the avatar in his own lap. Scalp prickling where the avatar's hair brushed the underside of his fuselage, Whirl pulled a stick of charcoal from the dungaree pocket and flipped to the next clean page in the sketchbook. 

The charcoal was smooth and slightly powdery, the pages a map of bumps and hollows pleasing to the touch. He drew the frame of a cog, then another. He planned the meshing of teeth, the gleam of light. His left hand strayed to feel the gimbal of his ankle joint, the metal as cold and hard and perfect as any gear he had ever gently tweazed into place. 

Perhaps their next stop would be a planet with shops. Maybe he could buy some supplies. 

The charcoal snapped in his avatar's hardlight hand. 

Or maybe not.


End file.
